The United Nations’ labour agency has hailed a historic milestone in the drive to end child labour after a global treaty to protect children from sexual exploitation, forced labour, and armed conflict was signed by all member states.
Development Diaries observed that the convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) against the worst forms of child labour was backed by the Pacific island nation of Tonga, making it the first UN labour treaty to be ratified by all 187 of its members.
The Director-General of ILO, Guy Ryder, said, ‘Universal ratification…is a historic first that means that all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labour.
‘It reflects a global commitment that the worst forms of child labour, such as slavery, sexual exploitation, the use of children in armed conflict or other illicit or hazardous work, have no place in our society’.
A report from ILO stated that the number of child labourers worldwide has dropped to 152 million from 246 million in 2000, and about 70 percent of these children work in agriculture and nearly half are in hazardous jobs.
‘Yet global progress in tackling child labour has slowed in recent years, particularly among children aged between five and 11, and the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to the first rise in the practice since 2000’, it added.
It was also noted by some campaigners that as the pandemic pummels the global economy, pushing millions of people into poverty, families may be under pressure to put their children to work for survival.
The UN has a target of ending all forms of child labour by 2025, one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon in 2015 to address a range of global ills.
Source: News Trust
Photo source: John Atherton